Paris to inaugurate Paralympic Games with ‘never seen before’ opening ceremony in city’s heart

By JEROME PUGMIRE AP Sports Writer

PARIS (AP) — Just weeks after hosting the Olympics, the summer of sports in Paris begins its final chapter Wednesday with the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games.

More than 4,000 athletes with physical, visual and intellectual impairments will compete in 22 sports over the next 11 days.

Organizers are promising a spectacular show to open the Games. Once again it’s being held outside the confines of a stadium, but unlike the rain-soaked Olympic opening ceremony, which featured a boat parade on the Seine River, the Paralympic ceremony is happening exclusively on land, with athletes parading down the famous Champs-Elysées to the ceremony at the Place de la Concorde.

Artistic director Thomas Jolly, who led the opening ceremony for the Olympics, said the event will “showcase the Paralympic athletes and the values that they embody”, and promised “performances that have never been seen before.” The July 26 opening ceremony highlighted inclusion and diversity.

Wednesday night’s show — set to start at 8 p.m. — promises to celebrate the human body, and with far better weather. As the mid-afternoon sun scorched Paris, some fans gathered early to get top spots on the Champs-Elysées, which leads down to Concorde.

Organizers say more than 2 million of the 2.8 million tickets have been sold for the Paris Paralympics. Competition begins Thursday with the first medals handed out in taekwondo, table tennis and track cycling. Athletes are grouped by impairment levels to ensure as level a playing field as possible. Only two sports on the program, goalball and boccia, don’t have an Olympic equivalent.

International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons said that the big crowds expected in Paris will mean a lot to the athletes, many of whom competed in front of empty stands at the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As our ambition is to be perceived and understood as the most transformational sport event on the planet, by having this atmosphere, it’s important,” he told The Associated Press on the eve of the opening ceremony.

Accessibility in the parade area has been facilitated with strips of asphalt laid along the Champs-Elysées, with it also being placed over the entire Concorde square.

Parsons added that the ceremony would be the city’s way of welcoming Paralympic athletes with a “gigantic hug.”